Hi Carla! Listen, for something like this, have the police alerted area pawnshops? Inexpert thieves (who steal clarinets alongside Vuillaumes) will probably seek to make a quick buck on the theft and never know that the goods they're fencing for fifty bucks are worth three to four THOUSAND times as much. For more knowledgeable thieves, a much more wide-spectrum alert is in order. Have you and/or your colleagues alerted Beare, Machold and that echelon of dealers? If both sides of the spectrum are covered (i.e. low-end pawnshops to top-level dealers), I can't imagine the thieves avoiding capture.

A Vuillaume was just auctioned at Sotheby's for almost 60000GBP, and I think about the same year or thereabouts. So we are talking about an instrument that is financially very valuable to say nothing of the emotional loss. I only hope the thieves soon return it to its owner. I also agree that you should alert all violin dealers/pawn shops of the loss.

I read it in the newspaper.I heard a story of someone in an amateurorchestra. Her violin was stolen in a cafe where they drink something after a concert and layed their instruments somewhere in the cafe. She immediately told this to some violinbuilders, luthiers in the neighboorhood and described how the violin looks like. Soon after that the thieve entered the shop of the violinbuilder and asked whether he could sell the instrument. The violinbuilder recognized the stolen instrument and said that he did not had enough time that day and asked whether the thieve could come back the next day at 3.00 AM. That midday the thieve came back, but the owner of the violin was also there and the police, because the violinbuilder had told the owner and the police that there was a big chance that the thieve would come back the next day at 3 AM, which happened.So thieve in jail and violin back to the owner.